WHAT IS A PERSON OF VIRTUE?

That is someone who has deep understanding of Karma That is someone who does not live for themselves, but spends their whole life finding ways to benefit everyone, benefits that range from material, to spiritual, to enlightened consciousness That is someone who always strives to find their own faults in order to correct them That is someone whose presence wherever they go creates beautiful influence, inspiring everyone about a community that knows how to love one another That is someone who contributes many beautiful things to cultural society Foreigners will come to learn from a country that possesses such virtue

Why do many people work hard their whole lives but still cannot become wealthy?

Many people work hard their entire lives yet never become wealthy, simply because they don't have the karma for wealth. Meanwhile, those with the karma for wealth, after some time of diligent work, will accumulate abundant riches, because they have that destiny. People in Central Vietnam have a folk saying that deeply resonates: "A dried tree, even if soaked in water, remains dry. A poor fate, even if fleeing to the grave, remains poor." So who determines the fate of wealth and poverty for each of us? It is precisely the Law of Karma and Karmic Retribution. We ourselves have chosen our fate of wealth or poverty from past lives through the choices we made to live altruistically or selfishly. Living altruistically is very difficult, burdensome, time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly. But afterward, we are placed on the list of those destined for wealth. Conversely, living selfishly is comfortable, pleasant, effortless, carefree, and then we are placed on the list of those destined for poverty. We determine our own fate. Now, if you wish to become wealthy, please take time to do good deeds and help others little by little. After a few years, when good fortune arrives, don't indulge in it—take that wealth and do more good deeds. Then greater opportunities will come again; don't enjoy them either—use that wealth for more good deeds... Until such time as your morality has reached its limit, you no longer wish to do good deeds, you no longer wish to elevate yourself further, it's enough, then begin to enjoy and celebrate with pride and arrogance until your good karma is exhausted. When the suffering from exhausted karma becomes too great, then take up the effort to do good deeds again...

What is Living Wisely?

Every day we enjoy the resources of heaven and earth, of society, we eat and drink, spend money, live in houses, walk on roads, breathe the air... We are compelled to think about what we give back to society, to heaven and earth. If our contribution is greater than what we receive, we have a surplus called MERIT. If our contribution is less than what we receive, we are indebted, called LACK OF MERIT. If we cause harm to the world, then naturally we incur KARMA/SIN. Only people with wisdom and virtue observe themselves every day, weighing their karma and merit, rather than foolishly only knowing how to enjoy life until their merit is exhausted and their entire life falls apart. If we observe life, we will see that there are people who contribute little and will lack merit; there are lazy people who contribute nothing, and before long their merit is completely exhausted and they die in obscurity, unnoticed by anyone; there are people who harm and cause loss to the world, and the karmic consequence brings them extreme suffering; there are diligent and kind people who know how to contribute and help others, and their lives later rise to extraordinary heights... There are also periods in life when we lack the capacity to contribute, such as when we are young children, or when we are old and weak—those are times when we borrow merit to live. Understanding this, when we have the capacity to contribute, we must strive with all our might to give back to the world, cherishing every moment, not wasting time and effort on entertainment and enjoyment, only to later... "enjoy all the days of youth, then quietly pedal a rickshaw later." Now there are no rickshaws to pedal anymore, they've all been banned anyway. In summary, living wisely means contributing and building, bringing benefit, virtue, and dharma to the world, never allowing a single day to pass without doing something beautiful.

QUESTION: How can one balance between the Path and the World?

ANSWER: We can never find peace by dividing the Dharma and the world. We have only one single path: to understand the Dharma deeply and apply it to every aspect of life, because the Dharma is precisely how we live in the world. The deeper we understand the Dharma, the more skillfully, reasonably, and wisely we handle all matters in life. The Dharma gives us every way to understand humanity and life. For example, the Dharma teaches us to love all beings, but the Dharma also warns us that as long as sentient beings have not attained the Way, everyone still has greed, hatred, and delusion, so we love all beings but do not necessarily trust everyone. That philosophy is both wise and virtuous. Or we are busy working to earn a living—the Dharma teaches us to make merit right in our work, not to abandon our job in order to do merit work. Or we must set aside time to visit our loved ones, and that is because the Dharma teaches us to comfort all beings and reduce their sense of loneliness, not because we reluctantly visit them to avoid being criticized. In general, we understand the Dharma very deeply and apply it completely to our life, rather than dividing half of life and half dharma.